LONG BEACH, California, 12 July 2004 — Michael Phelps swam the second-fastest 200m butterfly in history at the US Olympic trials on Saturday and received a vote of confidence from swimming icon Mark Spitz in his assault on Spitz’s record of seven golds at one Games.
Phelps added the 200m fly to his options at next month’s Athens Games, along with the 400m individual medley and 200m freestyle.
The win put him halfway through his program of six events in the eight-day trials, with the 200m backstroke, 100m fly and 200m individual medley still to come.
But the 19-year-old all-rounder was shaking his head after seeing his time of 1min 54.31sec flash up — outside his world record of 1:53.93.
Spitz presented the award for the victory, the first meeting between the legend who won four individual events and three relay golds at the 1972 Munich Games, and Phelps.
As Phelps bent down toward him, Spitz whispered in his ear as a crowd of about 10,000 roared their approval.
Former 200m fly world record-holder and Sydney Olympic gold medalist Tom Malchow finished second in 1:57.37, and Phelps couldn’t help but note the difference between this year and 2000, when he was a “wide-eyed kid” who grabbed the second berth behind Malchow.
While Phelps continued his triumphal progress, a couple of 2004’s wide-eyed kids grabbed victories on Saturday.
Dana Vollmer posted perhaps the biggest upset of the meet so far when she surged to victory in the last half lap of the women’s 200m freestyle over American record-holder Lindsay Benko.
Vollmer, 16, clocked 1:59.20 to beat Benko by nine-hundredths of a second.
Katie Hoff, 15, completed a medley double, following up her triumph in the 400m IM with a victory in the 200m event over breaststroke specialist Amanda Beard.
Brenden Hansen, who set a world record in winning the 100m breast here on Thursday, said he wouldn’t rule out a world record in the 200m final after topping the semifinal times in 2:10.76. Jason Lezak led the semifinal times in the men’s 100m freestyle, followed by 100m butterfly world record-holder Ian Crocker and Sydney 50m gold medalist Gary Hall Jnr.
